Hi Carl,
On Sat, 13 Jan 2001, Carl B. Constantine wrote:
> For example, say I have package 123 and it depends on X >= 4.0. Now I've
> compiled and installed X 4.0.2 but the package database of course does not
> recognize that I've done that. It still thinks I have X 3.3.6 therefore,
> package 123 does not install. How do I get around this? I know I could
> probably use --force with apt-get or dpkg but I'm wondering if there's
> another way? I could probably create my own packages for X, but don't really
> have the experience to do so, any tips and pointers would be appreciated.
> You can apply this situation to any package. I don't want to recompile my
> entire system. I might as well transfer to Slackware if I want that. I like
> Debian and want to stay with it, but getting around some package issues is a
> little hard to grasp at time.
Ideally, you would never have to try to get around this. If you have a
package 123 that depends on X >= 4.0, then there had darn well better be a
package out there that provides X 4.0. If not, there's no sense in even
putting 123 in a package until X 4.0 packages are out. Certainly within
Debian proper, a package that depended on a non-existant package would be
rejected.
Incidentally,
$ apt-cache show xfree86-common
Package: xfree86-common
Priority: optional
Section: x11
Installed-Size: 720
Maintainer: Branden Robinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Architecture: all
Source: xfree86
Version: 4.0.2-1
... so XFree 4.0.2 is now available in unstable.
Out of curiosity, if this is a real scenario, where did you find a package
that depended on XFree 4.0.2 that didn't also come with a pointer to 4.0.2
packages?
> The X sources for XFree86 4.0.2 that are available from Branden's site seem
> to depend on libglide2-dev and libglide3-dev. I don't think these
> dependencies are fair for those of us that do not have Voodoo cards. The
> should be suggestions instead. Voodoo owners would know they need these
> anyway and probably already have them installed. What's the difference
> between the sources here and the source tarballs on xfree86.org?
The Debian autobuilders don't care very much for source packages that don't
take care *all* build-dependencies are satisfied, even if an individual
computer isn't likely to need all of the resulting binary packages. If
you're building local packages from the source, and don't want these
dependencies to be there (i.e., you're not going to build a full set of
binary packages), then you'll have to edit the source package. The
dependency on libglide2-dev and libglide3-dev is very real and very
necessary for those who plan to build those packages as part of the Debian
system, and since the packages are intended to be part of the Debian system,
they're not optional.
IOW: you don't need these dev packages to build X for your system, but
Debian needs these dev packages in order to build X for *everyone's*
systems. It can occasionally be a pain, but remember that these are
minutiae that are hidden from the users: a user should never need to worry
about recompiling the X packages, because the Debian developers should make
the packages work for them. If a developer needs to recompile packages
sometimes... well, it's all part of what you sign up for when you choose to
become a developer. :)
HTH,
Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer
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